Author: Ian "iantothemax" Walker

After weeks and weeks of detailed breakdowns, Capcom’s Tomoaki Ayano has one more Ultra Street Fighter IV character to describe Omega Mode changes for: Decapre.

A newcomer to the Street Fighter IV series, Decapre proved to be quite divisive when she was first revealed. While some were happy to see another Bison Doll finally become playable, others felt as if she was way to similar to Cammy to be considered a new character. Time proved that she brought a ton of new changes to the fighter she was cloned from, and her Omega version throws in a couple more curveballs.

Much like Dee Jay, this assassin will now function as a command character, forgoing her usual charge motions in order to give her quicker offense.

Decapre has also been given a fireball, though the level of strength you choose will be very important to its usefulness. While Invisible Ray’s start-up improves depending on which button you utilize, the recovery will lengthen as a trade-off. The EX version, on the other hand, comes out fast, covers ground quickly, hits twice, and knocks the opponent down.

Her second new addition, Psycho Transaction, pulls inspiration from Juli’s Psycho Charge Beta in Street Fighter Alpha 3. This move allows Decapre to sacrifice a portion of her health for additional super and ultra meter, a high risk move that could pay dividends if utilized effectively.

Decapre’s resources will continue to exchange as long as you charge the move, leaving the possibility of recovering huge amounts of meter. Of course, she can still be knocked out, so you’ll have to be extra careful not to push your luck too far.

Ayano’s full descriptions for both of these moves can be found over on Capcom-Unity.

Source: Capcom-Unity, tip via NightmareSteam

Although news broke that Tekken 7 would arrive in arcades next February a couple of months ago, it would appear that date wasn’t entirely correct.

During an interview with South Korean website CyFren, director Katsuhiro Harada relayed that Bandai Namco Games first plans to release a pre-launch version of the title in February before dropping the complete game in March of next year. This can be construed as a sort of beta release or soft launch on their part, which will allow them to hammer out the last few kinks left in the system before dropping cabs throughout Japan on a wide scale.

According to Avoiding the Puddle’s Flying Wonkey, who translated some of the more interesting pieces of the interview, Harada also stated that they are planning to include time-release cast members instead of outright cutting popular fighters from the cast.

Additionally, the longtime chief reiterated his desire to insert a female Korean character into the Tekken universe, though he feels fans in the region would much rather see a good-looking guy join Hwoarang and Baek as their country’s representatives. Work has yet to begin on this hypothetical addition, but Harada encourages players to provide feedback on Hwoarang’s transition to Tekken 7 in the meantime.

Taking this news in conjunction with Tekken 7 introducing the series’ first Italian fighter in newcomer Claudio and the possibility of an as of yet unnamed Arabian character also joining the mix, it would appear Harada is doing what he can to make sure our world’s diversity is properly represented in his fighting games.

For more details from this interview, be sure to check out CyFren if you can read Korean or head on over to Avoiding the Puddle for their translations.

Source: CyFren via Avoiding the Puddle

This winter, SNK Playmore is planning to release a port of their classic side-scroller Metal Slug 3 on PlayStation Network. While this is all well and good, I’m sure many fans of their old-school fighters saw this news and wondered if some love may be extended to King of Fighters and Samurai Shodown.

Well, it looks like it just might.

In a PlayStation Blog article posted today, SNK Playmore’s Director of Business Development Adam Laatz was given the opportunity to directly approach the community and ask for their opinions on the matter. They will be gathering data through an online poll, which includes options for everything from other Metal Slug titles to SNK Football Championship.

That being said, fighters take up most of the list, namely Art of Fighting 2, Fatal Fury Special, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, King of Fighters ’97, King of Fighters 2000, The Last Blade 2, Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers, Samurai Shodown II, and Samurai Shodown V Special.

With a veritable smorgasbord of classic SNK goodness laid out in front of you, it may be hard to decide which to vote for, but feel free to visit the official poll and try your best.

It’s worth noting that, as tipster Jotamide pointed out to us, Samurai Shodown V Special has never been released outside of arcades, which means a good showing in this poll could result in its first appearance on home consoles. Extra incentive!

Source: PlayStation Blog, thanks to Jotamide for the tip.

The folks over at VG Bootcamp recently went live with another installment of Smash @ Xanadu from Xanadu Games in Baltimore, Maryland. These weekly broadcasts provide a great look at the region’s Smash community, and tonight’s installment will feature competition in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. 64.

If you’re interested in some Smash Bros. action, be sure to tune in. The stream is live below, but you can also head on over to Twitch to join the chat.

Watch live video from VGBootCamp on www.twitch.tv

Source: VG Bootcamp

While folks who pre-ordered Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- have been playing the highly-anticipated title for a few hours now, something important has surfaced that will definitely be important for everyone who plans to play it on PlayStation 3 either tonight when it releases throughout Japan or in the coming weeks.

According to Ryan “fubarduck Harvey, the last-generation version of Xrd automatically defaults to 30 frames per second. This news was corroborated by Kurushii, who mentioned players can choose between having better graphics or pushing the framerate to an appropriate 60 frames per second.

As we’re sure you know, the latter figure is absolutely necessary for the tight execution that is often a crucial part of playing fighting games competently.

Fortunately, this issue is not present on the more powerful PlayStation 4, which apparently runs at a clean 60 frames per second without losing any visual fidelity.

So remember, before you jump into training, netplay, or any of the other modes Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- offers, check your settings–especially if you’re about to sit down for a tournament match.

Sources: fubarduck, Kurushii

Keeping on top of tournaments for major fighting games can sometimes be a daunting task, especially for titles only available in Japan. Such is the case for Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-…well, was the case, rather, because one immensely gracious member of the community took it upon himself to rectify that problem.

Doug, also known as keeponrockin, is a member of the Northern Calgary scene who recently launched the aptly named Keep On Rockin’, a website that gathers tournament footage and organizes it for easy browsing. This allows players to search for matches based on a number of categories, including the date it was uploaded, the title, the competitors who took part, and the characters that were used.

Even cooler, videos that include multiple matches are automatically timestamped to the appropriate spot in the footage, a step that increases the ease of use even further.

The website organizer has mentioned in previous tweets that all this work, apart from the timing, is done by hand, making this a huge labor of love that should definitely help out much of the community. We salute you, keeponrockin!

You’ll find this extensive database by following the link below. Our friends over at Dustloop have also added quick links to the top of their own website if you happen to visit their forums on a regular basis. In any case, be sure to check it out and see what you can find.

Source: Keep On Rockin’ via M’Ellis